Chapter 581: The Hostile Crossfire

The Abyssal Weaver did not wait for his patrons to finish screaming. He slammed his jagged claws onto the balcony railing, triggering the Market’s emergency lockdown protocols. Massive steel blast doors crashed down over the pavilion’s archways, sealing the Vanguard crew inside the neon-lit death trap.

The thumping electronic music abruptly cut out, replaced by the sickening sound of tearing flesh as spatial rifts ripped open across the casino floor. Dozens of Abyssal Hounds poured out of the void. The demonic beasts were the size of hover-cars, boasting four glowing eyes and jaws lined with jagged, obsidian glass.

“Tear the holy magic from his veins!” the Weaver shrieked, pointing his sacrificial blade directly at Xavier.

The hounds lunged forward in a unified wave of gnashing teeth and violet rot.

Lyra laughed, a sound completely devoid of fear. She clapped her hands together, igniting a roaring shockwave of hellfire that swept across the front line of beasts. The flames incinerated the hounds mid-leap, turning their bodies to ash before they even hit the floorboards.

Rin flanked her in a seamless blur of silver steel, his twin blades carving through thick demonic hides with terrifying, silent precision.

The Weaver realized his frontline was evaporating. Roaring in frustration, the towering demon vaulted over the balcony railing. He brought his curved blade down in a lethal arc aimed directly at Xavier’s skull.

Xavier didn’t even draw his sidearm. He simply looked up and ignited his Golden Authority.

A concentrated pillar of brilliant, heavy starlight crashed down from the ceiling, slamming into the Weaver mid-air. The kinetic force was absolute. The demon slammed violently onto the marble floor, the impact shattering the tiles in a spiderweb pattern.

Xavier casually stepped over the smoldering remains of a hound and placed his boot squarely on the broker’s chest, applying enough golden pressure to crack his ribs.

“You run a terrible casino,” Xavier noted, looking down at the struggling demon. “Now, give me the coordinates to the Demonic Society’s mothership, and I might let you keep your horns.”

The Weaver spat a mouthful of acidic black blood onto the floor, his violet eyes burning with defiant hatred. “The First Pillar will consume your soul, human. You cannot hide from the Abyss.”

Before Xavier could apply more pressure to the demon’s chest, the eastern blast doors of the pavilion violently exploded inward.

A massive shockwave knocked the remaining roulette tables into the air. Through the billowing smoke and shattered steel, a squad of towering, heavily armed corporate mechs stomped into the market. Their polished armor bore the distinct purple insignia of Lorde’s conglomerate.

CEO Lorde’s pre-recorded voice boomed over the mechs’ external loudspeakers. “All unauthorized Abyssal assets in Sector Four are hereby liquidated under the authority of PurpleSpring Holdings! Leave no survivors! Reclaim the sector!”

Lorde, emboldened by Malakor’s downfall, had apparently decided to violently clean house while the planetary enforcers were busy with the city-wide riots.

The corporate mechs immediately leveled their heavy rotary cannons and fired blindly into the room, utterly uncaring whether their targets were demons, scavengers, or the Vanguard crew.

A barrage of armor-piercing kinetic rounds tore through the pavilion, shredding the remaining Abyssal Hounds into purple mist.

“Protect the demon!” Xavier yelled, diving behind an overturned betting terminal as the marble floor evaporated under the heavy gunfire.

Lyra ducked behind a structural pillar, looking at Xavier with utter disbelief. “Are you entirely out of your mind?! You want me to save the guy who just tried to feed us to his dogs?”

“He has the coordinates!” Xavier shouted back over the deafening roar of artillery. “If Lorde’s mechs blow him to pieces, we lose our only lead!”

Kylus sprinted across the crossfire, his cloak whipping behind him. A corporate mech fired a tracking rocket directly toward the pinned Weaver. The Aurelian warrior leaped into the air, igniting his thermal cutter to cleanly slice the warhead in half before it could detonate.

The two halves exploded harmlessly against the back walls, showering the market in sparks.

The Weaver stared up at the corporate mechs, completely dumbfounded that his human interrogator was now actively shielding him from a rival firing squad.

“This planet is populated entirely by loud, incompetent fools,” Xalvoria stated softly.

She stood perfectly still in the center of the crossfire, her crimson dress completely untouched by the raining debris. A heavy kinetic slug approached her temple at supersonic speed.

She didn’t even blink. The bullet hit an invisible spatial barrier inches from her skin and flattened into a useless disc of hot lead.

Annoyed by the deafening noise, the Empress raised her right hand toward the squad of advancing mechs.

She snapped her fingers.

The space surrounding the three heavily armored corporate walkers instantly folded inward. Millions of credits worth of cutting-edge military hardware groaned, buckled, and violently collapsed.

The massive mechs were instantaneously crushed into three dense, sparking cubes of scrap metal no larger than a footstool.

The market fell utterly silent, save for the crackle of localized electrical fires.

Xavier slowly stood up, dusting the plaster from his tailored jacket. He looked at the compacted cubes of corporate machinery, then glanced down at the terrified demon still pinned beneath his boot.

“As I was saying,” Xavier smiled, pressing his Golden Authority just a fraction heavier against the broker’s chest. “The coordinates. Right now.”

The Weaver trembled, his demonic pride entirely shattered by the display of overwhelming void magic. He reached a clawed hand into his silk robes and pulled out a bio-encrypted data drive shaped like a jagged black tooth.

“Take it,” the demon wheezed, terrified of the crimson-haired woman staring at him. “The mothership… the primary fleet… they are holding position in the decaying orbit of an uncharted dead world. The coordinates are embedded inside.”

Xavier plucked the drive from the demon’s grip and tossed it to Kylus, who quickly verified the data signature on his wrist console. Kylus nodded, confirming the encryption matched the Abyssal fleet’s standard frequency.

“Pleasure doing business with you,” Xavier said, deactivating the golden starlight pinning the demon to the floor.

He turned his back on the gasping Weaver and signaled the Vanguard crew to move out through the shattered blast doors. The operation on Vandermis Aventine was finally over. They had the funds, the military upgrades, and the exact location of the Demonic Society’s mothership.

It was time to go hunting.